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This paper develops a model of strategic preference formation: I assume that players can choose in a first stage the weights they assign to the other players' material payoffs, and then determine the optimal weights each player should choose so as to maximise her material payoff. I highlight a systematic relation between supermodularity (submodularity) and the formation of cooperative (competitive) preferences. I then investigate the implications of this framework for the design of public policies, and show in the case of climate change negotiations that international agreements relying on technology standards with trade sanctions rather than objectives of pollution abatement are more likely to succeed, since they create a coordination game and cut the strategic substituability of the initial game.
